A large variety of small watercraft exist in the market today primarily to satisfy consumer needs for easily transportable fishing boats and auxiliary service to larger vessels. This latter group serves a broad spectrum of applications including, but not limited to, emergency use (life boats), transport to and from a larger vessel, and typical recreational activities such as fishing, rowing, and swimming.
A common problem shared by many users of these craft is transport and storage. For those who carry a boat on board a larger vessel, the problem is one of sufficient deck space or space on a swim platform, and the ability to easily and safely launch or retrieve the smaller craft. A good example is trying to pull aboard and stow an eight foot by four foot fiberglass dinghy weighing as much as several hundred pounds. Even the latest high density polyethylene sheet molded dinghies still weigh eighty pounds or more which is difficult to handle in a bulky 4 feet by 8 feet sized package. Inflatable rubberized fabric boats solve the weight problem but do so by trading off reduced interior space, stability and durability. To capitalize on the compact storage capability of inflatable boats require the time consuming process of deflating and reinflating at each use. If left inflated, as is usually the case, especially for those boats with rigid fiberglass bottoms, they do not address the issue of storage space which not only takes up valuable deck space but is often unsightly as well; important considerations to the recreational boater.
Another problem, experienced mainly by fishermen who carry their boat in the back of a pick up truck, van, or station wagon, is the difficulty in fitting a suitable craft into such vehicles. With inflatables being a totally unacceptable option due to disadvantages cited above, the currently popular compromise is the aluminum "john boat". While its narrow beam (width) permits sliding between the wheel wells of a full size pick up, it sacrifices stability and useable interior space.
The applicant is aware of the following U.S. Letters Patents which disclose boats with foldable members which are designed to stabilize the boat and/or reduce the volume of the boat for storage or transport.
______________________________________ Inventor(s) U.S. Pat. No. ______________________________________ Besosa 289,208 Mulie et al 642,622 Banaszak 1,371,139 Dickerson 3,068,830 Levinson 3,530,519 Sisil 3,763,511 Schlagenhauf 4,024,592 Van Ulzen 4,337,543 Bleke 4,622,912 Selken 4,768,454 Lesly 5,052,324 ______________________________________
The applicant is not aware of any commercially significant implementation of these patents and it is believed that fragility and complexity of the boats and a high potential for water leakage have discouraged their use.
A class of collapsible boats which theoretically provides an acceptably strong and durable structure while giving some measure of reduced size for transport and storage are those which fold in half across the beam into half the length (but twice the height) are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,203,276 and 5,257,594 issued to Malven. These boats occupy the same volume when folded as when in the operating configuration and do not reduce the critical width dimension (beam) to facilitate transportation by the vehicles noted previously.
Another class of boats breaks down into separate pieces which can then be nested together as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,093,366 issued to Robinson and U.S. Pat. No. 2,427,772 issued to Farish. These boats require a complete and time consuming disassembly that is inconvenient on land and totally impractical on the water.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,126,558 issued to Nolan et al disclose a collapsible boat formed from a number of hull sections interconnected between bow and stern. Each section has a pair of sides and a pair of ends. A separate outrigger member is hingedly connected to each side of each section. Each outrigger member may be folded within the respective hull section. The boat is assembled before being placed in the water.
The present invention provides a structurally sound, unsinkable, rigid watercraft with the seaworthy characteristics of standard length to width ratio marine design while also folding into a transport/storage configuration of approximately one-half its normal volume. Additionally, it accomplishes this by reducing the important width dimension without any disassembly.